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Kelly Olynyk: What's Up?

In his sixth NBA season (year two of his four year, $50 million contract w the Miami Heat) the 27 year old seems to be either regressing, losing interest, playing injured or just in the doghouse. I have no idea which if any of the above explain his apparent drop-off in production, but the fact his minutes per game are going down in what should be his prime is puzzling to me. Last night he played 13 minutes with zero field goal attempts.

Since being reintegrated into the core rotation of the Miami Heat, Kelly Olynyk has again demonstrated his immense value to the team.

For a decent period of time this season, it was unclear just where the Miami Heat stood with Kelly Olynyk.

Despite the underwhelming performance of the team, it seemed there was no room for the unique package of skills that Olynyk brings to the table. Over the first 20 games of the season, he averaged 8.1 points and 3.4 rebounds in just 17.8 minutes per game, including receiving the dreaded Did Not Play – Coach’s Decision.

This was a far cry from the final 20 games of Olynyk’s first season with the Heat, where the Canadian native averaged 13.5 points, 6.3 rebounds and 4.0 assists in 23.9 minutes per game.

However, with the Heat struggling mightily with a 7-13 record, and with a number of key players sidelined for multiple games, Olynyk again became part of head coach Erik Spoelstra’s plans. Thus far, the results speak for themselves. Over the last nine games, the Have posted a 6-3 record, which featured winning four out of six games during a challenging West Coast road trip.

A couple things going on - the Heat are semi-struggling coupled with just many healthy bodies right now (had a load of guys hurt last year). They are experimenting with different line-ups and attempting game by game match-ups. All this is causing KOs minute to fluctuate wildly. It is still quite odd to see as KO was really good for the Heat last year. There were a couple line-up couple combinations with KO that were very effective last year yet they have rarely been used this year.
Add to oddness is that KO really killed the Clippers the last time they played yet gets DNP'd last night and DNP'd vs Boston where you;d expect him to ball out.